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Leave the Light Off

By The New York Times and Frank Bruni March 29, 2006 5:53 pmMarch 29, 2006 5:53 pm

Shedding Light: Left, Ureña on East 28th Street. Right, the Pegu Club on Houston Street in SoHo.
(Left, Shannon Greer for The New York Times; right, Marvi Lacar for The New York Times)

It’s often the final question a friend will ask me about a restaurant he or she is considering, and it’s often the decisive one.

Once we’ve discussed the food, the prices, the service and the degree of formality, the friend will say, “And the lighting?” If I respond that it’s “a little bright,” the restaurant is a no-go. If I say it’s “like a subterranean crypt at midnight and you better bring night-vision goggles,” the friend begins speed-dialing for a reservation before I can utter another word.

Lighting is a huge, huge consideration for many diners, a point hammered home every time I visited the new restaurant Ureña, which I review in today’s newspaper.

Within minutes of entering the restaurant and without fail, my companions would question, and complain about, the harsh, unflattering lighting, which put them on edge and made them feel as if they were in a gussied-up luncheonette.

Some may like it bright, but I think many more prefer at least some cover of darkness, which relaxes them and makes them feel pretty. Where to find it? I’ve got a few suggestions. I’d welcome others.

Invariably, some of the most gorgeously lighted places I know are essentially cocktail lounges rather than restaurants, but these days such lounges often serve enough food to sustain you. I’m thinking in particular of two favorites: the Pegu Club in SoHo and the Brandy Library in TriBeCa. Pegu draws a younger crowd than the Brandy Library does, and it emphasizes special cocktails while the Brandy Library revels in its remarkable inventory of spirits.

D’or Ahn, a Korean-French restaurant in Chelsea, has soft, moody lighting, and it’s a great-looking place in general.

For a room that’s very nearly sepulchral — and I mean that as a compliment — consider Peasant, an Italian restaurant in NoLiTa. It’s the kind of place where you may need to move a candle toward your menu in order to read it.

Then again, that menu doesn’t do you any good if you’re not versed in Italian. Peasant has the odd affectation of making you listen to your server translate the menu item by item.

Well, Town is very dimly lit — we had to use the table candles to read the menus. But the space is about as “cool” (in the fashion, not temperature, sense of the word) and hip as anywhere I’ve been in town. So for folks that like the cover of darkness it’s a good spot. But the glare at Peter Luger’s doesn’t seem to make it any easier to get a reservation there.

Speaking of lighting, does anyone know the name of the petite, semi-subeterranean french restaurant in Melinda and Melinda, where Will Ferrell’s character takes Melinda intending to pronounce his love? In the movie, they said it was on 9th or 10th avenue, but I’ve done some internet research and have come up empty. Perhaps it’s fictitious. But it looks like a great place for a romantic meal, and I’m hoping it’s real and someone can identify.

Is lighting that important in a meal? I’d really doubt the purist food fanatics would care about the lighting, it’s about the food we’re talking here! For me, as long as the food is fabulous, I could careless~ (Unless you’re going out on an important date – that would be a different story.) But then again, we’re in New York City, where everyone scrutinize everything down to the last detail. So—

This is for the last comment that CY wrote.
Obviously you have no right even writing a comment like the one above. Lighting is extremly important when it comes doen to it. I am not even going to bother explaining it to you, and think you should of thought it out before writing something like that.
If your talking McDonald’s, lighting wouldn’t matter, but most other places that are talked about within the New York Times, of course.
I am in love with food, in love with the art, the aroma, the flavor, you name I love it. A purist, realist, what ever you want to call it, but lighting does have a lot to do with a lot of things when it comes to food, restaurants, moods.
Cuisine = Passion

I agree lighting, or lack there of, is very important. I use a miniature LED light on my key chain to read the menue. Is that rude and crude? I’m happy to be prepared, but will you let me back into Manhatttan?

For lighting and decor, I return again and again to the Flatiron Lounge. It sometimes gets too crowded with the young, after-work scene, but the cocktails are delicious and the decor (and staff) make me feel as if I’m living a more sophisticated life than the workday might suggest.

buddha, chill out. this is a forum where people are encouraged to express their thoughts freely.

As for lighting, I like to see what I’m eating, especially if the art is not only in the taste of the food but also in the presentation. I dislike being unable to read the menu as well as waiting until the food is in my mouth to figure out what I’m eating. But I guess there is a happy medium – not too McDonald’s and not too Suba.

Forget lighting. Lets talk about noise. Ate recently at A Voce and at Otto and found the din exhausting at both. Went to A Voce with Italian friends who couldn’t believe New Yorkers put up with that environment.

I obviously value food over any other aspect of dining to a fault. I perceived an eagerness to get to making the great food in their kind of slapdash approach to decorating. I actually appreciated the opportunity to clearly see the food, its not like it’s similar to a night game at Yankee stadium.

re: a voce
i was assured that the noise was canned & piped in with a very subtle bass to accompany it. not as
loud in the back. but the true sound comes from the
quality of the food. the patio will be a great addition.

Another poorly lit restaurant is Annisa. As I’ve mentioned previously, its no doubt to hide the fact that the room is simply boring (no pictures, photographs or anything) and to hide the wine spills on the walls (of which there were a few) and nicks in the walls.

I think the lighting at WD~50 is interesting. The lights are very obviously directed downward to your place settings…which helps Mr. Dufresne articulate that the food is the star of the show at his restaurant.

Re: Clyde’s post – I’ve been to Urena 4 times and it has been 1/2 full to full each time. Went late on a Friday night a few weeks ago and it was packed. The lighting is awful – message to restaurateurs – no cove lighting! Room suprisingly ugly as reported. COLORS has it too and they turned it off! That place is well lit. Another well lit restaurant is the new Tocqueville. (Frank referred to their fur lockers in another post so I guess he’s been by.) People positively glow in that room. Don’t remember Annisa, but chef wasn’t there and had a sub par meal. WD-50 strikes me as decently lit but I can’t remember for sure.

The idea that dark=better is ridiculous. I can’t stand an overly-bright restaurant either, but I think that it’s more a question of the quality of light in a space rather than wattage. Prune, for example, always seems to me to be exquisitely lit, and it’s hardly dark. The silver tipped bulbs and mirrors and warm walls make it the most welcoming space I can imagine.

For impressive lighting design that is left dark enough to flatter, check out AvroKO’s restaurants. Stanton Social, Public and Sapa have gorgeous, but soft, lighting. Dining at Public recently my dinner companion complained it was too dark to read the menu, and the waiter pulled out one of those credit-card sized magnifying lights you see on infomercials! Great lighting, great service…

Lighting is important on a first date, and should be considered when planning one, but it should never keep you from going to a great restaurant. Bad food tastes horribly in any light. In addition, poor lighting may provide a nice conversational icebreaker, as it appears to have done for Mr. Bruni. I think it’s more important for bars/lounges, where mood it is a must.
Those not willing to try Urena, or any other great place, because of the lighting/décor issues are missing out on first rate meals.

I’m surprised no one’s mentioned “dining in the dark”. I thought it was a local, short-lived fad (which happened in private dining rooms including those of Suba and CamaJe), but apparently it’s gone far and wide, including Paris, Cologne, Sydney, and Zurich, and has been around somewhere or other for four or five years at least. Depending on the instance, servers either wear night-vision goggles or are themselves blind and thus not troubled by the total lack of illumination.